Boo2

Thanks, fully sheeted wing is what I am after. This is a definite contender for my next plane...

Boo

greyfly

I too can confirm the model has a fully sheeted wing, has when I purchased mine, I removed all the covering and glassed the whole airframe. It's rather well built too.

Bryan McLarty

Well, after several months, she's finally finished.

Power: DLE 35cc, 2-cycle, single cyl. engine, custom muffler, electronic ignition, XOAR 20 X 8, WWII prop
Radio Gear: Spektrum 9 channel power safe receiver, Spektrum A6180 digital servos, LiFe Source LiFePO4 batteries
Gear: e-Flight electric retracts, customized scale tailwheel bracket from Sierra Giant Scale.
Details: RAF pilot by WarbirdPilots.com, Gunsight by IFlyTallies.com, Scratch cockpit and custom weathering by me.

Was going to maiden today, but had issues with one of the cells in my ignition pack. Still have to troubleshoot, may have to replace...
Need to fix then ready to fly!

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

That looks sharp

Adam makes some great looking pilots.

ForcesR

BM, nice weathering and awesome pilot. That's a fairly large prop for the DLE 35, unless the DLE is well broken in? I am not being critical, I am just curious as to the running time on your DLE 35

Roger

DHC6

My Feedback: (6)

Bryan,

Your Spit looks great! I was wonding if you could show us your servo setup for your DLE, and how much weight did you have to add to get it to balance?

Also some more detail on how you did your weather would be nice as well. Thanks.

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

OK guys I forgot to post here but I've also been flying my Spitfire for the last month. I just love her in flight, she is a sight to see and flies wonderfully after I got the control throws dialed in to my particular liking. She just has no bad habbits in the air. On the ground, slightly different story but not all bad either. More in a bit.

Anyhow, back to the model. I am running a Hacker A60-14L on 12S electric, 5000mah packs. I'm swinging an APC 20x13e prop (intend to try a few different props while I'm at it, have a custom Fiala on order too). The motor KV is 192 and that works out to about 7500 RPM at my 85% efficiency (will download the real data within a few weeks). She is plenty fast at full throttle but the strength is she climbs like a home sick angle for huge / unlimited loops and Immelmens. I'm still working up my flight times but I have every reason to believe I'll settle on about 8+ minutes for the timer and still have 20 percent plus left in the packs with a mix of scale and aggressive sport flying. I'm running a Castle Creations HV160 with the case fan installed and running off the SBEC at 6 volts - it but I'm getting good air ventilation to the motor/ESC and battery box via the "live" open chin inlet and baffling I added. Exhaust air goes through the exhaust stack areas, and also out a flow through vent in the left oil cooler (cowl, to battery box, to wing, to cooler exit duct under the wing). The batteries are coming down cool to the touch after flight but I'm only running them hard for 5 minutes at a time still. I haven't gone down to 20 percent yet they will likely get hotter then.

Right now I am flying the model "almost" at 5" aft of the leading edge for CG (maybe 4.9" or so). I test flew her at the recommended CG and was happy but knew she could come back a bit further. As is, she is stable and not quite perfectly neutral but I like my warbirds to fly like this so I'll probably stay here. I added more elevator throw when gear is down. When gear is up my elevator defaults to the "high rate" as prescribed by the manual. The extra elevatr throw is to allow more tail down authority during roll outs. I have 40 percent expo in with the "super high" gear down, elevator throws to allow most of the stick travel to closely match the normal elevator feel for normal in flight elevator stick positions but full aft gives a bit more bite. Stalls in flight with gear down and full aft stick are not an issue with a 5" CG and the "super" elevator rate as I feared it may be - simply said, this is a beautifully flying miniature Spitfire.

She is super easy to transport on wheels with center wing attached and then putting it together at the field or taking it apart is very fast and easy. She looks great when all together and easily accepts a lot of little scale details like cannon blisters, gun sight (Chad V) and Pilot with moving head (Warbird Pilots). Exhaust Stacks by Jiri (the guy making the beautiful BT Spitfire right now). Cockpit instrument panel, seat and some other details (kit) by Mick Reeves. Used a lot of little pieces of styrene plastic for new aft canopy glass and gear cover cleanup fairings as I modded the canopy and some other areas of the plane.

I'm really looking forward to getting more time on her and learning to master more scale, graceful roll outs without tipping a wing tip on the asphalt. I am flying off of pavement and I do notice that she can be a little squirrely with that narrow track gear on acceleration for takeoff and deceleration after landing. Just a side question for you guys, are any of you running toe-out by chance? I have a slight amount of toe in. With taildraggers there is some debate out there in the full size experimental airplane community that in many designs, toe in is not necessarily a good thing. I was going to re set the gear with zero incidence for toe out / in and see if that helps keep her tracking a touch better in that "no man's" land of between 10 and 15 mph. Too fast to easily taxi with sure footedness and too slow to safely fly. Granted the plane is still very new to me and the winds have been a bit shifty lately at my flying site due to the season, often quartering headwinds changing to quartering tailwinds and just puffy at about 5 knots here and there. I'd be happier with a 10 knot steady wind Honestly, it's not such a problem that I think about it much. I like flying her and I think I'll be up to speed pretty quickly on the squirrely ground handling.

I'll update when I get the weathering done. I haven't started that, and it's one of my favorite parts. Oh yeah, the final scheme represents one of the birds Otto Smik flew (CZ Pilot) for the No 312 Squadron, RAF, during 1944. This plane also carried a centerline fuel tank for missions over Continental Europe so I'll be making one of those up too. Also, the Sound System, a Model Sounds Inc unit, will be finally installed soon and that will allow me to remove the 4-5 ounces I had to put up front for balance. Have not weighted her yet but I will and will post that along with more data on my prop RPM and power levels. She sounds great at full chat, the prop puts out some good noise.

AZThud

That looks great, I think I have seen the gunsight before, perhaps Chad :-) For the gun blisters did you vacuum form them, and more importantly would you be willing to share a couple and perhaps your paint mix for them?

Wonderful job on the plane, mine is approaching 200 flights now, several have been on the wing tips upon landing and the spinner does have some flat spots on it. :-) One flight I caught one wing taking off and then got the other on the landing. I don't think it would be possible to do that twice! and still fly the thing.

I have no designed toe in or out, I just try and get the wheels straight. One thing I would recommend you check regularly are the wheels to make sure there is no binding and that the axles are greased. To protect the wings I have done 2 things, I trimmed down some H9 control horns and put them on the tips and I also put on a product designed to protect cars from rocks and shoes, its called Expel Clear Universal door sill Guard. Its tough and help my wings survive. Chad told me that you were asking about it.

Good Luck,

Bryan McLarty

Rick:
Could you post a few pictures of your wing tip skid efforts?

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Hi Rick thanks for the info, appreciate it!

My wing / cannon blisters: I was in the process of getting ready to carve a balsa mold for my vaccu forming tray when I found some fiberglass ones for sale. I bought them from "Vic RC" http://www.vicrc.com/product_spitfire.htm under the product "Mk 9 Fiberglass Accessories". He sold me just the blisters for I think $15 shipped or something close to that. Since I was pressed for time and about to leave town for a week I called him up, make the buy and they were waiting for me when I came home. They are well made and plenty strong, but not heavy. I mounted them with small #0 tapping screws and counter sunk them. (the ones BVM sells for gear doors but I buy mine in bulk).

The paint I'm using for my detail work / canopy / blisters is regular Testors Model Master. The spinner, tail band and cockpit interior is Testors #2049 "RAF Sky", and it's a very close match. It's allowed me to touch up my spinner. After cleaning the scratches from nosing over (due to one tire coming partially unseated from the wheel and acting like brakes were on), I scuffed with 400 grit, primed and sanded that, I added the RAF Sky color and it completely hides the slight damage that was there and there is no imbalance. Runs true as ever, looks better than new. The dark green is Testors "Field Drab" (I did not like the match on "RAF Dark Green", "Field Drab" is closer to my eye but still not 100 percent). Some feathering with the detail air brush will get it nicely matching from 2 feet away though. The top side gray is Testors #2057 "Ocean Gray". Pretty close, same thing, feathering it really helps around the blisters. The bottom side gray I have not found a perfect match yet but Testors #2058 "Medium Sea Gray" is close with some fading (add some light gray or white mix, 10 percent). I use this color to hide the screws, linkages, etc as well as touch up now, on the wing tips!

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

Doh! Why didn't we think of that Rick?!! I knew Vic had these for the Taylor Spit. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

AZThud

LOL Chad I think we are in the same boat!! Minds are slipping!! Might want to Vic a call, next week.

Bryan I will be pulling out the Spit tomorrow, or the day after to take a couple of pictures for you!

Cheers!

Bryan McLarty

Here's a little mod I was proud of that I thought Id share with you all.
Rare earth magnets installed with epoxy (hysol) in back to back configuration for the cannon attachments. Must use magnet to magnet attachment for strength. My magnets are approx 12mm diameter.
These cannons simply stick on and pull off. Someone gets too close to your beauty and bumps the cannon, they flex a little and snap right pack into place!

Bryan McLarty

Here's mine:

anthonymio

Or, you can do an LF wing with some old wing pants, styrene sheet and press-on rivets. Instrument panel and gun-sight courtesy of Chad Veich.

AZThud

Took a lot longer than I wanted to, this wing has suffered 187 of my flights, as you can see the wear has been not too bad. I have another wing and was planning to show more closely what I was going to do, but I was busy with a couple of other projects. Anyway sorry for the delay, C

Cheers Let me try a different picture excuse the mess This is what I was working on

ForcesR

Changed the C of G from 4 3/4" to 5", moved the batteries etc. It took 19oz to achieve the 5" C of G; AUW is now 19lbs 3 oz. This weight is nothing compared to a fellow flyer in the club who has the H9 Spitfire that is electric and it weights 22.5lbs. Hopefully I can get the maiden flight done this coming weekend.

Roger

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

I am at 5" too, and she flies like a kittun in the stall at that CG setting. The stock CG is plenty conservative and there is comfortable room for adjustment aft. She flies really light on the wing, Nice work on keeping her light. I bet at even 25 pounds or more she would be plenty nice to fly though!!

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Thats the thing that amazes me about this plane. It is, for all the looks, heavy metal, and if you pick it up, for the size it feels like a pig.

But.....if you get the CG right it flies very lightly and lands with no problem. Only issue with this plane is keeping it going straight in a cross wind until the small tail becomes effective.

ForcesR

The Spitfire does not like a cross wind, it will always wind vane, no matter which model Spitfire brand you fly. I have several size model Spitfires and they all perform the same way in a cross wind, you just have to be prepared to work the rudder

Roger

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Nice part about flying helis is my left thumb has been activated for years

ForcesR

I rechecked the CoG today using my new VicRC-CG'er Stand instead of the Great Planes CoG machine. The GP machine indicted I had to add 19oz of lead to achieve the 5" CoG, but the new VicRC-CG'er indicated I needed only 15oz to achieve the 5" CoG. That is a big difference 4oz of lead removed from the nose. I did the CoG test 3 times to confirm how accurate my findings were and I trust the VicRC-CG'er over the GP CoG machine. I am glad to say that the AUW of my H9 Spitfire is now only 18lbs 15oz, Yahoo!!

Roger

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Awesome work Roger. Nice and light, something to strive for. How much fuel do you carry?

I weighed mine last week and again today. I am at 5" CG as well. I've been flying at 19 pounds, 10 ounces (Full takeoff weight packed with electrons). This includes the 7 ounce pilot with the turning head, a 5 ounce scale full depth cockpit upgrade... This thing flies awesome at this weight.

I added a sound system to her a few days ago and added an extra 13 ounces all up for the upgrade so I'm at 20 pounds 7 ounces, all up weight, now. I can't feel like there is a noticeable difference really at the heavier weights though. If anything, she feels more stable on takeoff throttling up for acceleration with the extra 3/4 pound, if that makes any sense. She's a very nice flyer.

For the Electro-Nerds out there in the ether... here are some updates to my setup now that I have reviewed all the flight test data logs from the ESC. I'm running a Hacker A60-14L motor, powering with a 12s 5000mah pack and a Castle Creations HV160f controller. That's turning my APC 20x13e prop about 8000 or so RPM. It has a lot of power - 100 amps max and about 4000 watts (would be about 110a at sea level and 4400 watts). Prop pitch speed is about 98 mph. I can climb straight up after takeoff, via a gentle accelerating pull to vertical for what seems like unlimited altitude. I have not pushed past 400 feet for obvious reasons but it has the capability to fly as aggressively as I like. On the other hand she will sip energy at half throttle for scale flying for what seems like about 90 percent efficiency... The A60 a great motor in this aircraft and configuration. I'm using about 450mah a minute on average with aggressive mixed flying so my flight timer is set for 8 minutes and I'm landing with more than 25 percent left in the packs and the batteries are not hot at all. Everything is cooled via baffle air cooling through the chin scoop. It's baffled past the ESC and motor (hottest motor air passes through the exhausts), the remaining cooling air passing the by the packs and out the oil coolers under the wings. The ESC is reaching a max temp of 110F/43C but averaging cooler 80 percent of the time - so it's not working too hard and the cooling is working.

ForcesR

Eddy; I'm carrying 18ozs of fuel; total AUW before fuel is burned off is approximately 20lbs.

This maybe of interest for those who use a seperate battery for the retracts. I left the seperate retract battery connected to the electronic control board while the Spit was stored on the rack. When I checked over the plane before loading it on the truck to take to the flying field, I noticed that the retract Life battery looked puffy. I removed it from the aircraft to check the charge and found that each cell was below 2 volts. The 2200mah Life battery is now usless/ruined, it cannot be recharged. Apparently the electronic control board will draw power from the battery when left connected unless you have an on off switch placed between the battery and control board.

Roger

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Thanks Roger. Sounds like a nice overall weight to be at IMHO. Congrats on your nice, light weight build!

Sorry to hear about your LiFe pack going dead. Electronics like this at idle waiting a signal will consume a fair amount of power over several days. Even a fail safe switch turned "off" in other words not using the battery will still draw 50mah or more from the pack a day to keep the switch isolated. An old school switch may work... I guess that case might be fine, I'd just make sure the switch can handle the spike current of the landing gear draw without failing.